


And They Were Roommates (Oh My God...)

by Cereal_Forks



Series: Death and the Entire Universe [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Young Justice (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 04:19:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18189686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cereal_Forks/pseuds/Cereal_Forks
Summary: It had been six months since Tim Drake disappeared, and when he comes back, he comes back different. He comes back without warning, happy and loved and better than he had maybe ever been. It's a better return than Dick had ever allowed himself to hope for, but after months of worrying, there's something wrong and unfamiliar about the reunion. Despite his best efforts, it's hard to let himself be happy for his little brother.





	And They Were Roommates (Oh My God...)

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU I came up with a long time ago, way back before Young Justice and Wonder Comics was announced, so here's the rundown: Up until Detective Comics #981 is still canon in this universe, Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown rode off into the sunset to research whatever was up with the timelines. Bart Allen's return at the end of Flash War (Flash #50) is canon, but Heroes in Crisis is not canon, Wally is seeing a therapist and still misses his wife, but he's alive, same with Roy Harper, Poison Ivy, etc. everyone is getting professional help and it's great. Bart returned and recruited Tim and Cassie Sandsmark to go into the multiverse looking for Conner, who was lost somewhere, and the three of them hop from world to world for a while, looking for their boy. When all four of them finally get back, Tim and Cassie have got their pre-n52 characterizations back, but they're now stuck in the Rebirth world, in which all of them are very distant from their families, and the lives they worked very hard for are gone. Rebirth is pretty inconsistent in what they did and did not keep canon from pre-n52 and n52, and they haven't been very direct in just telling us either, so I picked and chose what was and was not canon in this universe too, but for the sake of this story, the only thing you really need to know is Dick and Tim are not the best bros that they were before n52.
> 
> I've always loved Dick and Tim's relationship, they were such good brothers and bounced off each other very well. Unfortunately, DC's been working hard to tear that relationship down for almost ten years now. Rebirth claims to have brought back a lot of elements people missed in the n52, but Dick and Tim's relationship is still very absent, and I personally really miss it, so I wrote this fic to address that deterioration in their relationship.

After six months, finally, a break in the case.

Tim and Steph rode off into the sunset after the mess with Armstrong to investigate something about timelines. No one had taken much time to explain it to Dick. The most he understood was that Steph silently had her eye on the Batgirl mantle now and Barbara wasn’t giving it up, which made things a little awkward for everyone, but nobody wanted to talk about it. He also understood that a month later, Steph rode back over the horizon alone. She told them that Tim was gone. She didn’t know where he had gone, but she woke up one morning and he wasn’t there anymore, without even a note to let them know what happened to him. Stephanie didn’t know how to continue the timeline research since Tim had been the one doing most of the research parts, so she came home to her silent conflict with Barbara. Bruce recruited the Justice League and called in every favour he could to help him look, the planet had been scoured in a matter of minutes after Steph returned to the manor. Six months passed, and Tim was still just gone.

Dick had done what he could to throw himself into the case without letting Blüdhaven slip through his fingers. Every second he didn’t have a pressing case or wasn’t on patrol, seconds when he was on the bus, on his lunch break, sometimes even in his dreams he was going over Tim’s case, looking for any little clue his brother may have left behind to help him find him. He had read through all of Tim’s timeline research, but even after asking Barbara to help him decipher it, all of it was almost complete nonsense. 

Documents upon documents of numbers and calculations and theories and stories. Plenty of contradictory bits, sometimes it appeared that he had deleted large chunks and Dick had to guess what had once filled the space, and he had links to websites or other parts of his documents that didn’t seem to go together or make sense. It had taken Dick two months to read all of it, it even took Barbara one whole week, and they were still in the process of trying to force it to make any sense. There were lots of names, a few occurring more often than others. All of the Bats were listed, some made-up Bats that he had never heard of before were listed too, but Tim didn’t fixate on them. “Conner, Bart, Cassie, Conner, Bart, Conner, Conner, Cassie, Conner, Bart, Conner, Conner, Conner,” Tim was obsessed with the names. Steph tried to explain when he pointed it out, but she said it was hard to put into words just how important these people were to him. Important enough that as far as Dick knew, he had let looking for them swallow him whole.

It had been almost six months, and no one had found even a whisper about what had happened to Red Robin or Tim Drake. That didn’t stop them from looking. Bruce was delegating more, not because he had been suddenly enlightened to the benefits of trust, but because Gotham and Tim both needed too much attention and he finally had his priorities straight. Jason didn’t communicate with the rest of the family, but Dick had caught him asking some sleazebag if he knew anything about Red Robin less than a month ago. Cass was on the receiving end of a lot of Bruce’s delegated work, but that didn’t stop her from asking Steph to tell her again exactly what had happened before Tim disappeared every other night. Steph really did try to offer anything helpful, but she had nothing, their search had been fruitless, and Tim had no logical reason to disappear when he did, although she was always looking for one. Even Damian took the extra work Bruce asked of him without complaint, and Barbara told him that he often read over the case in the cave when he couldn’t sleep. The last time Tim had been missing for six months, he wasn’t actually dead, just waiting for them to come for him, and no one did. Fuck, there wasn’t much time between the two disappearances, was there? He was gone for six months, back for two, and then gone again, who knew for how long. Dick wasn’t going to stop looking this time.

Six whole months and he finally got something.

He got the metas.

There was an alarm Dick had triggered to go off on his phone when someone got too close to Tim’s apartment. He had set sensors all around all of Tim’s apartments and safehouses so he would know if he ever tried to go home, and in six months, only other Bats and the occasional teammate accompanied by their Gotham representative. Dick was prepared to see Bruce or Jason or Cass checking the place again, he hoped he would see Tim. He didn’t expect strangers, after six months undisturbed.

Of course, Dick was disappointed, and his stomach turned in knots as he tried to think of what three metahumans could want in to his little brother’s apartment.

A boy and a girl were standing outside Tim’s door, both dressed casually and carrying large plastic bags, he was small, with big brown hair, and she looked ready to throw a punch. The girl kept looking over her shoulder while the boy knocked repeatedly on the door. Another alarm went off and Dick changed the feed to outside the window of the same apartment where another boy was flying outside the window, the lock burst when he lay hand on it and the alarms on Dick’s phone started to scream.

Dick was on his feet, his phone was back in his pocket, and he was on his bike all in the next second.

These weren’t normal crooks who had noticed an apartment had been empty for half a year. These were metahumans breaking into Tim’s apartment. That kind of thing doesn’t happen often, especially not in Gotham, where the Batman tried to keep an extra eye on metahuman criminals. No, these criminals wanted something from Tim specifically, and Dick wasn’t about to let them get away with it.

“Look what I found on Timmy’s bed,” the girl said in a sing-song tone.

They left the door open, so Dick could easily sneak in to see the three metahumans making themselves at home as they went through all of Tim’s stuff. The small boy was a speedster, he was whizzing all around the room in a red blur, stopping to show his companions a video game or knickknack Tim had picked up somewhere, which often got an eyeroll from the girl and an equally interested reaction from the other boy. He was putting together something of a nest of things that were interesting to him. The other two seemed to have authority over the speedster, and the girl looked like the leader, but Dick wasn’t quite sure what her powers were, she wandered around the big apartment, getting the lay of the land and had just returned from what Dick knew was Tim’s bedroom. The other boy could obviously fly, he might have had super strength too, he was checking out Tim’s kitchen, which the Bats had hollowed out looking for clues months ago. God, they were all just kids, maybe Tim’s age, maybe a little older or younger.

The girl was holding up a too-big black t-shirt with a red Superman S on it that Dick had never seen before, it must have been stolen from Jason or something, because it was much too large for tiny Tim. It made the bigger boy grin. “Shut up.”

“Do you think he would wear it to sleep when you weren’t there?” the girl asked.

“I said shut up,” the boy said lightly, tossing a box of crackers that the girl easily caught before they could collide with her face.

“I bet he did, you guys are so gross,” she said, draping the shirt over the back of the couch and opening the box of crackers.

“It isn’t gross, it’s cute,” the boy said, and Dick scowled when he heard that.

“Who’s gross?” the smaller boy asked, sprinting into the room again.

“This was on Tim’s bed.”

“Ew, you guys are so gross.”

“You’re both just lonely.”

Dick wished he knew the girl’s powers before dropping in, but he wasn’t going to wait another second for answers. To hell with how disappointed Bruce would be.

“I don’t usually fight kids, so let’s make a deal,” Nightwing said as he entered the room, escrima sticks already out. The kids turned to him with surprise. “You tell me everything you know about Tim Drake, and I won’t call your parents.” It was hard trying to keep the usual good Nightwing humor in his voice when he knew what was at stake.

“Nightwing!” the small boy shouted, and all of a sudden, he was on him. He was hugging him. Dick had well over a dozen plans for how this scene could play out, and none of them involved suddenly hugging a five-foot tall speedster.

“Shit, you scared us,” the larger boy said. He was smiling, completely at ease.

“Wow, I can’t believe I missed you! I hardly know you, but I missed you!” the small boy said. The smiling stopped when Dick pulled the boy’s arm behind his back and then he was shouting.

“What the hell!” the larger boy shouted, but Dick tightened his grip on the smaller before he could make a move.

“I want to know what you’ve done to Tim Drake, that’s all,” Nightwing promised.

“What we’ve done?” the girl repeated.

“You’re in charge here?” Nightwing asked.

“I guess,” she agreed.

“Then start giving me answers.”

“Nightwing, we don’t need to fight you, put Bart down, now.”

“Not until you tell me what happened to Tim Drake.”

“Nothing, he’s totally fine.”

“I don’t believe you, tell me what you’ve done to him.”

“You think we would hurt Tim?” the larger boy asked, as if the idea wasn’t even conceivable to him.

“Are you out of your mind?” the girl agreed.

“Three metahumans break into his apartment after he’s been missing for six months, what else am I supposed to think?” Nightwing asked.

“It’s us,” the boy said, as if that was supposed to mean something.

The door slammed shut.

“Thanks for the help carrying all this shit up, assholes, everything has to be a race with you three.”

Dick turned and he dropped the speedster to the floor when he saw walking down the hall to the fight on the cusp of breaking out, Tim. He was struggling, carrying too many plastic shopping bags in his too-small arms, but other than the slight struggle and mild annoyance, he looked good. Better than he had looked in a very long time. His hair had grown out a little in the six months since his disappearance, the bags under his eyes weren’t quite so prominent, he looked younger, better.

“Tim?”

“Aw, fuck, Kon, babe, a little help?” he hissed when one of the bags slipped from his hands, when he leaned down to pick them up, he finally noticed Dick standing there. “Dick? What are you doing here?”

“He’s lost his fucking mind is what he’s doing,” the larger boy said.

“He tried to attack me,” the smaller boy agreed.

“You what?”

But Dick just fell onto him. Tim yelped with surprise and a couple more bags fell, but that just made it easier for Dick to pull Tim closer. He was really there. It was his Tim, he was real and solid, and home, and he was never going anywhere ever again if Dick could help it.

“Shit, Dick, it’s good to see you too, but I think those were my eggs,” Tim said when Dick tried squeezing him even closer and there was a cracking noise.

“You’re okay?” Dick asked, pulling away to look, and yeah, Tim looked really good.

“I’m fine, actually, I’m great,” Tim said.

“You’ve been gone six months,” Dick said.

“Six months, really?”

“What happened to you? Did they hurt you?”

“They? You mean my friends?”

“Is that what these are supposed to be?”

“Hey, no,” Tim decided, “you’re my brother, and I love you, but you don’t get to be an ass to them.”

“I’ve just been so worried,” Dick said.

“I know, there was this whole crazy thing, it’ll probably be easier to just read the report when I finish the write up,” Tim said.

“Where did you go?” Dick asked.

“Where didn’t we go? I think we hit about sixteen worlds looking for Conner, and then we hit another twelve on the way back,” Tim said.

“What?”

“I’ll explain in the report, now what are you doing here? And why would you attack my friends?” Tim asked, and he looked a little hurt.

“He never did like us,” the small boy said.

“That isn’t true,” Tim said.

“Remember the singular time the two of us hung out and it ended with me dead?” the larger boy asked.

“That wasn’t his fault,” Tim said.

“Who are these people? What are they talking about?” Dick asked.

“You don’t know?” Tim scowled. “Didn’t you read my notes?”

“You mean the six-hundred-page word document of nonsense?” Dick asked.

“My memories were a little scrambled, maybe, but it wasn’t nonsense,” Tim said.

“There are six whole pages dedicated to you just reciting names over and over without any explanation,” Dick said.

“So, maybe I didn’t edit it as well as I should have, but you should have been able to figure out I went into the multiverse looking for Conner.”

Conner. Steph said that Tim was obsessed with that one name before he disappeared, his files implied the same. Bruce and even Clark said they had heard Tim mention Conner before at least once. Dick didn’t know who he was, but he already hated the guy.

“No, we didn’t figure that out, as I said, it was six-hundred pages of nonsense.”

Tim sighed, and he ran a hand through his longer hair. “Dick, I don’t want to fight, I just got back.”

“I don’t want to fight either, fuck, I’ve just been so worried about you, we were all worried, you were just gone, I only just got you back, and suddenly three metahumans are breaking into your apartment, what else am I supposed to think?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t disappear like that anymore.”

“The first time wasn’t really my fault.”

Dick pulled Tim in again. Fuck. His brother was back in Gotham City for maybe five minutes and already they were fighting. He wondered when their relationship had gotten like this. They used to be so close.

“Can I put my groceries away before we do any more hugging?” Tim asked.

“No, you’ve been gone six months, you owe me this.”

Dick could feel Tim roll his eyes, but he wasn’t going to let go until he was good and ready and all the problems that had arisen in the last couple of years were gone.

“Should we give them a second, or what?” the speedster whispered behind Dick.

“Shut up,” the girl hissed.

Dick sighed. Hugging out all their problems would evidently take a few more sessions. “So, these three? Who are they?” Letting go of his brother to send a cold look across the room.

“I really thought you would remember once I got all of us back in the time-stream,” Tim said.

“You’re going to have to explain all that in the report,” Dick said.

“I guess we’re going to need that reunion tour after all,” the girl said.

“Dick, this is Kon-el, or Conner Kent, or Superboy, Bart Allen, he’s going back to Impulse, and I don’t know why you wouldn’t recognize Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl, they’re my very best friends, my team, and my new roommates,” Tim said.

“And they were roommates,” Cassie whispered under her breath.

Dick remembered Donna mentioning someone running around calling herself Wonder Girl once, a very long time ago. Bart was a complete stranger to him. And Conner was a long-awaited face to a name. Dick decided he still didn’t like him very much.

“I’m also Tim’s boyfriend,” Conner said, and Dick decided he definitely didn’t like him.

“So, you disappeared, abandoning your family to worry about you for months, so that you could find a boyfriend?” Dick asked.

“Dick, stop getting mad,” Tim pleaded.

“I’m not mad, I just don’t understand.”

“You’re freaking out,” Tim said.

“Yeah, I’m freaking out, you disappear off the face of the earth on a six-month hunt for a boyfriend without so much as a note, and now you’re back acting like nothing happened, I’m half tempted to take you to the cave to make sure you’re really you.”

“How can you even say that? Sure, we aren’t close in this universe, but you should be able to recognize your own brother.”

That hurt. It wasn’t wrong, but it still hurt to hear Tim say that out loud.

“You aren’t acting like any brother I know.”

“Then maybe you should go find yourself another one, I’m sure Damian’s available, and I don’t have time for your bullshit.”

Fuck. This wasn’t the reunion he wanted with his brother. This isn’t the relationship he wants with his brother. But Tim looks better than he’s looked since he became Robin. And Dick has to ask himself what he really thinks he’s bringing to the table.

“I’m sorry, please, talk to me,” Dick pleaded.

Tim sighed. From his body language, Dick could tell he really didn’t want to. But that was too bad, Dick wanted to know what was wrong, with Tim and with them.

“Can I put away my groceries first?” Tim asked.

“I’ve got it,” Bart decided, and he picked up the bags on the floor and ran them to the kitchen.

Cassie took the rest of the bags and nodded for Conner to follow her. “You guys talk, we’ll be close if you need us.”

“Thanks,” Tim said, and Cassie took Bart and Conner into the other room. Tim led Dick to the couch and collapsed, picking at what was obviously egg yolk staining the front of his shirt. Dick couldn’t remember the last time the two of them had sat down to talk like this, but he thinks they used to do it a lot. “You need to buy me more eggs.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Dick asked. He was off to a great start.

“Me? You’re the one you attacked my friends for no reason,” Tim said.

“I thought they were breaking into your apartment.”

“You could have asked them.”

“I thought they knew where you were, I thought they were keeping you from us.”

“You could have asked them that too.”

“I know, but this was the first news of you in six months. Bruce had the entire Justice League looking for you, no one could find anything I thought I lost you again. And now you’re back, and I don’t understand what you’re doing so happy.”

“Well, if you don’t want me happy, maybe you should stay longer.”

They were both silent.

“I didn’t mean that,” Tim whispered.

“It’s okay, I didn’t mean it like that,” Dick said.

“How did you mean it?” Tim asked.

Dick had to think for a moment. “You’re different, from when you left. I had built up this idea in my head that the only thing that would take you from me, from your family, had to be some dangerous evil thing that you were fighting to get back to us, but now you’re back and it’s like you’ve just come back from a vacation. You go grocery shopping before you came back to the manor to tell anyone you were alive, which is completely unlike you. Not only that, but you chose to leave us, you abandoned Stephanie out there, did you tell her anything before running off to get your new boyfriend? Does she know anything at all?”

“I’m not the bad guy.”

“As far as I’m concerned, the bad guy is whoever’s been keeping my brother from me, and it sounds like you’re all I’ve got.”

Tim stared at his feet. “Dating Conner isn’t cheating on Steph, she broke up with me, we weren’t together when I left, and if she expected me to always be available to do this on-again-off-again thing we’ve had going for so long, that isn’t my fault.”

“You still vanished on her, you couldn’t have taken the time to leave her a note or anything.”

“I didn’t have time to leave a note, I had to be with them, I couldn’t wait any longer, so when Bart showed up with the answer to my equation, I didn’t think twice, we grabbed Cassie, and left, and I don’t regret that, you can’t make me regret that.”

“Who are these people? You didn’t even think of us, you just left, who the hell are these people to convince you to do that.”

Tim’s breath caught in his throat when maybe for the first time he thought carefully about how he wanted to describe it. “I guess the best word for it would be soulmate. These are my soulmates, it’s more platonic than that word makes it sound, although some universes treat our dating lives like a mix-and-match, but these are the three people who I can’t help but be drawn to, and you can’t stop that, Dick, death and the entire universe have tried, but it’s just not possible for there to be a world in which the four of us aren’t drawn together.

“There are fifty-two different universes as far as we know, I visited about twenty-eight looking for Conner, and do you want to know how many I found where he wasn’t by my side? One. This one. Sometimes we weren’t very close, sometimes some of us were dating each other, sometimes we couldn’t stand the sight of each other, but we were always drawn together as some of the most important people in each other’s lives, our paths needed to cross but this universe tried to keep him from me, it tried to keep Bart and Cassie from me. And it was tearing me apart inside in ways that you can never understand, a part of me was gone, and I didn’t know how to find him, but if he had been dead, I would have been happier to die if it would return me to his side. But he wasn’t dead, he was just lost. It’s sort of like Wally and the Titans, when he was gone, and you didn’t know he was gone, you could still feel it, and it hurt, didn’t it? That hole in you that you can’t wrap your head around, you just know it’s empty and it hurts, and you try to fill it with the tiny name that’s all you have and you’re clinging to it because you need something, you just don’t know what. And then all the answers show up on your doorstep, and they can fill the hole, but only if you leave right now, so of course I left, how could I not? You can never understand, Dick, but that’s the best I can do to put it into words.

“It was never about you, or hurting you, it was about me, and him, and them, and yes, I’m happy now, because that hole is full now. I have the people who love me, and who define me, and who make me happy more than anyone else on this earth, how could I not be happy?” Tim asked, and he looked up to look Dick in the eye. He was crying.

And Dick didn’t know. Sure, there was a feeling of wrong-ness when Wally was gone, it’s similar to how seeing Jason hanging out with Roy sometimes rubs him the wrong way. But there was no gaping hole in his gut begging him to get his friends back. Even Tim’s disappearance, the absence of part of his family, who he loved more than anything, didn’t leave any kind of void in him. Sure, there was sadness, and concern, and it absolutely hurt, but not in a way that he could never have been happy again if he never came back, and not in a way that seeing him again flooded him with instant relief and became the single happiest instant in his life. 

What was he thinking? He’d been losing his mind worrying about Tim not even an hour ago, now he was here, and Dick wasn’t happy? That didn’t make sense. That was his brother sitting right next to him, alive, happy, and better than Dick had maybe ever seen him. Of course, he was happy.

Dick had to tell himself that before more bitter words poured out of his mouth.

“So, these people are more important to you than your family?” Dick asked.

“Fuck, Dick, it’s not a contest,” Tim hissed, tearing his gaze away again. “Maybe you should just wait for the report.”

“Well, what else do you want me to say? Whether you meant to or not, you disappeared, and you made us worry, and family doesn’t get to do that to each other.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Agent 37, you fucking hypocrite,” Tim growled.

“That wasn’t my choice.”

“No, getting kidnapped into a pocket dimension for six months waiting for a rescue that isn’t coming isn’t a choice, letting your family believe you’re dead is you being an asshole,” Tim growled.

"Are you still mad about that?"

"You all abandoned me to rot!'

“Fine, I was an asshole, but so are you right now.”

“Why can’t you be happy that I’m happy?” Tim asked.

“Because you don’t get to be happy after you hurt people,” Dick said.

“Fine, I’m not happy, my brother is an asshole and he won’t let me be home for five seconds without making me feel bad for trying to do one thing for me, you got what you wanted, now get the fuck out of my apartment.”

Another silence, Tim was standing, waiting for Dick to leave.

“Tim,” Dick said.

“No, get out,” Tim said.

“I used to be better at this, the whole brothering thing,” Dick said, remaining seated. “Do you remember? We used to be close, and you would tell me everything, and we would go train-surfing.”

“That was two lifetimes ago,” Tim recalled.

“Was it?”

Tim nodded. “Just another thing death and the entire universe took from me, but you’re already here, I can’t go bring the good brother back.”

“I want to be a good brother,” Dick insisted.

“Where do I keep the pictures of Batman and Robin, the ones I took before you knew I existed?”

“What?”

“How old was I when you first met me at the circus? Who was my first girlfriend? What kind of camera do I use these days? Which major organ did Ra’s al Ghul stab out of my body? Where is the first scar Jason gave me? When was the last time we talked before I went missing? If I used to tell you everything, why don’t you know anything about me?” Tim asked.

“I didn’t know you still did photography,” Dick admitted.

“Because you don’t know me anymore, and the version of you that did isn’t out in the multiverse for me to find somewhere, I can’t make him come back, but I can tell you to leave.”

“Tim, please don’t make me leave.”

“Why not? So far, you’ve attacked my friends, accused me of cheating on Stephanie, and tried to tell me I don’t deserve to be happy.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t care, I’ll send you the report along with everyone else.”

“I’m sorry I made you feel like you had to go hunting through the multiverse to find someone who cares about you, I promise, I do care.”

“For fuck’s sake, it wasn’t about you! It had nothing to do with you! You didn’t factor into the equation at all, for once in my damned life, I was doing something for me, and I wanted you to be happy for me.”

Dick took a deep breath in. “I’m not a good brother.”

“You were, once, when I needed it.”

“You need it now.”

“I don’t need this.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry, this wasn’t fair of me,” Dick agreed. “Before I got here, all I wanted was to see you okay, to know you were alive, and I hoped you weren’t hurt, but then you were here and I got so annoyed by that even though you’re doing so much better than I ever thought you could be, and it’s not fair to you that I feel that way. I shouldn’t feel that way, and I’m so sorry I took it out on you.”

“I’ll be fine, I have my friends, and I can take care of myself,” Tim said.

“But that isn’t fair, I’m your big brother, and I’m supposed to take care of you, and be happy when you are, and I don’t get why I don’t feel that, but you’re my brother, and I’m not supposed to hurt you like this,” Dick said.

Tim joined Dick on the couch again, but he didn’t look at him. “You don’t have to count as a brother, you don’t know me, you don’t have to force it.”

“I know you’re my brother, and I love you, even if I’ve done a shit job of it for about as long as I can remember, I don’t want to lose you again,” Dick said.

“I don’t want to lose you either,” Tim agreed. “But if you can’t do this one thing and let me be happy, I don’t see any other option.”

Dick wrapped a hesitant arm around Tim’s shoulders, and exhaled softly when the smaller boy fell into his side like it was a natural position for them.

“I do, I promise, I want to see you happy, it’s just—” Dick had to find the words that would hurt Tim the least. “Caring about you doesn’t come as naturally as I know it’s supposed to, I know you’re my brother, you were really my first brother because Jason and I weren’t close like that, but when I try to call on those feelings they don’t come naturally. I tried to talk to Bruce about you when you were gone, and the best I could come up with was you were smart, but you’re so much more than that, and I know that, it’s just hard to remember. I know, I love you, but at the same time, that love just isn’t there.”

That was wrong. Dick shouldn’t be saying that out loud.

“I thought if I got them back, everything else could go back the way it was too,” Tim admitted. “You would be my brother again, and everything would be better, but it isn’t, your set of memories are still the ones where we don’t talk, we aren’t close, and you don’t care. I crossed universes for them, I can help you too, but you need to put the effort in, because I’m not going to put up with your rejection.”

“Whatever I can do, I’ll do it, please don’t make me go,” Dick begged.

“Well, you can start by meeting my roommates,” Tim suggested.

“Done.”

“And trying to like them.”

Dick grit his teeth, but he was teasing. “All of them?”

“Even Conner,” Tim agreed, “I really love him.”

“That’s a big word.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.”

“Fine, I can give him a chance,” Dick agreed.

“That’s a start.”

“Can I ask you a question?” Dick asked.

“Shoot.”

“How old were you when we first met at the circus? My memory says seven, but my math says three, and I have no idea how that makes sense.”

Tim laughed. “I don’t know either, the timeline is fucked, I have no idea how old I was, I don’t know what’s wrong with my aging process at all, actually, but there’s definitely something wrong with it, you know, I’ve been seventeen for the last three years?”

“You what?”

“It’s true, how old was I when Damian became Robin?”

“Seventeen.”

“How old was Damian?”

“Ten.”

“How old is Damian now?”

“Thirteen.”

“How old am I?”

And Dick really had to stare at him and think about it. Tim laughed some more while Dick tried to figure out how that could possibly work. 

“So, are you supposed to be twenty? Is that another one of those things you need to fix? Fuck, how old am I supposed to be?”

“You’re fine, I’m fine, I just hope I can finally get an eighteenth birthday this year,” Tim said.

“I’ll throw it for you myself,” Dick promised.

“Thanks,” Tim said, and he burrowed a little closer to his brother. “Shit, I should start working on the report for the rest of the Bats.”

“No, they can have their turn later, this is brother time,” Dick said.

“I have two other brothers you know, wait, no, I have three, Duke and I should hang out more, I don’t think we’ve ever really hung out,” Tim said.

“You and Dick should hang out more,” Dick said.

And Tim couldn’t really disagree with that.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this, there is a sequel in the works in which Dick and Tim actually work on some of that good brotherly bonding and it goes about as well as can be expected for a couple of brothers from different timelines. Originally, it was going to be a lot more about Dick meeting Tim's roommates (hence the title), but then it turned into bro time, which I'm still really happy with, and I liked the title too much to change it (also I such with names). Other than this series, I'm working on a frankly enormous Fantasy/DnD inspired AU, once again for my four favourite kids, Tim, Kon, Cassie, and Bart, but that's probably going to take a while to even start being ready. For now, keep an eye out for the second part if you enjoyed this, and thanks for reading.


End file.
